Quartet Page #4

how we do it, homes

# 'Cause the sky... # Ohh.

- I don't know, whatever, man...

- Fantastic.

Thank you, Joey. Now,

uh, very good, it's going very well.

Don't go away.

Um, we're going to, uh...

Uh, yes, come in.

It's us.

Can I help you?

Where was I?

Rigoletto is, uh...

...one of Verdi's, uh, masterpieces.

It's about infidelity.

- No. No...

- Ah, Reggie, how'd the talk go?

Um...

Reggie?

# You little beauty, yes... #

Jean, shall we just sit for a while?

I don't care what we do, really.

Oh! Nobby really ought to

have a go at this pond.

Ugh, it's filthy.

Here we are.

There's Olly. Daisy! Daisy-Jo!

Run, run, run, run, run, run, run!

Look at you!

Give me a hug! Mmmm!

- This is my friend Jean.

- Hello, Jean.

Uh, which hand?

That one.

Yes!

Daisy! It's time to go home.

Off you go. Say goodbye.

- Goodbye, Cissy.

- Bye-bye, sweetheart.

- What's your name again?

- Jean.

Bye, Jean.

Bye.

Mm...

Must be lovely to have visitors,

like family.

Will you, Jean, have visitors?

- The grounds are nice.

- Yes. Yes.

I'm not like you, Wilf,

I positively liked getting old.

I think I can say that

I made the transition

from opera singer to old fart

with aplomb.

And then Jean arrives

and shatters everything.

You know, I remember thinking

about you when you got married...

She was always much

more ambitious than you.

Of course she was. She was

more ambitious than everyone.

If I know anything about it...

- What can you know about it?

- I was your best man.

Yeah, of course you were. But you were

married to the same woman for 35 years.

Call me old-fashioned, Wilf,

but did she know you were unfaithful

to her God knows how many times?

You say some very harsh things, Reg.

I think I'll have myself a widdle.

And you were right, you know,

I do hate getting older.

I hate every bloody moment of it.

If it isn't piles, it's bloody prostate

or peeing five times a night,

if you're lucky.

Ah! Ladies!

You may want to avert your gaze.

A wise man goes when he can,

a fool goes when he must.

Look, here's Jean in all her glory.

Oh, Jean. You haven't changed a jot.

Didn't I tell you? Didn't I say

she still looks like a young girl?

Reggie? Don't I get a kiss?

Reg?

I apologise for hurting you.

Please... be kind to me.

We were different people then.

There, I've... I've been

rehearsing that all the past week.

He's upset because he wasn't warned

you were coming.

I'm not upset.

Oh, Reg.

This is the first time we've seen each

other in God knows how many years.

- '97.

- Is it really that long?

God. How time flies.

Oh... A joke!

Cissy!

Bobby, give us a clue, for God's sake.

Is it a book, a film, a play?

Cissy. The note?

I couldn't read your writing.

Meeting, now.

Oh, God. The emergency meeting.

- I wonder what that was all about.

- Where's Reg? Where's Reg?

Reg!

Reg?

Reggie?

Reg, are you in here?

Oh. There you are.

What you doing there?

Leave me in peace, Jean.

God... Oh, dear,

I've walked miles to find you.

Leave me in peace.

Reggie?

Leave!

Can't ever remember

you crying.

I don't remember you

being religious.

I'm not. I was trying to avoid you.

I apologise for hurting you.

Please be kind.

- We were different people then.

- No, you just said that, Jean.

You're repeating yourself.

Oh, God.

Why do we have to get old?

That's what people do.

We have to come to

some arrangement.

I don't want to talk about it.

You're here. I'm here. Trapped.

So what are we going to do?

Grin and bear it.

What happened to

forgive and forget?

This cologne...

...takes me back.

It takes me back to you, Reg.

- It's flat.

- I know.

Are there any other pianos?

We will make sure you get a

better one next time, alright?

Have a little go, see how you get on.

OK.

Esme.

Thank you.

- Hello. My name's Isla Mathieson.

- Hello. My name's lona Mathieson.

- And we'll be playing...

- Go Tell Aunt Rhody.

Would you like to go for a walk?

Were you married four or five times?

I was only married twice.

After you.

Charlie Tripper.

He was a businessman.

Mixed pleasure with business

rather too often.

And Edward...

- Fitzroy.

- Yeah.

Yeah. He wanted me to retire, have

a family, so that was the end of that.

- You never married again?

- No.

- Why not?

- Didn't want to.

When we did Bohme at the Met

and you backed out,

was that because of me?

Yep.

- And Salzburg?

- Yep.

Oh.

What brought you here?

Um... actually Wilf was ill.

He had a stroke, didn't he?

Yes, it was only a mild one, thankfully.

It's affected

his, um... his frontal lobe

and he has trouble censoring himself.

Is that it?

Well, so he says.

So I came here

to see how Wilf was getting on.

- And stayed.

- Mm.

I loved singing. But I like my life.

You can't have both. Can you?

- No.

- No.

No, you can't.

I've nothing.

Well, my clothes, bit of jewellery

and a hip that gives me hell.

- And here you are.

- Yeah, here I am.

On charity. God,

it's embarrassing.

I wouldn't tell anyone.

I mean, the press

have always been mean to me.

If they learned I'd landed up here,

God, how they'd gloat.

Do the press still have

any interest in you?

- Oh!

- Ow.

Piss off, Reg.

W... B*tch!

There she goes. See her?

Angelique. B*tch!

Cow! Sodding frog!

She won't give me marmalade

at breakfast.

She gives me apricot jam.

- Oh. You hate apricot jam.

- B*tch!

- Skinny-arsed French twat.

- Shh.

Stop it, Reggie.

So, Jean, what made

you stop singing?

- You mean for good?

- Yes, for good.

I just became so scared.

Suddenly, the pressure was huge.

I became so aware of the critics,

and the importance

of getting a good review,

that whatever you did had to be good,

or, well, better than before.

And of course it can't be.

I got so nervous, I just...

I just could not sing anymore.

- I just...

- Here. You know this?

'Works of art

are of an infinite loneliness,

and nothing...

...can reach them so little

as criticism. '

We weren't doing anything.

Neither were we.

- # Underneath the arches... #

- Can you find us somewhere...?

# We dream our dreams away... #

Where is she - Cissy?

Where is she?

- She will be here.

- Excuse me!

Are you planning to do this

at the gala?

Certainly!

Well, I've changed my mind.

I don't think it's sophisticated enough.

What do you mean

it isn't sophisticated enough?

- Exactly what I say. What did I say?

- 'It's not sophisticated enough'.

- There you are.

- Well, we are gonna do it.

# Underneath the arches... #

We started half an hour ago.

- You're late.

- I had to get my bag.

Have you asked Reggie

to sing that Donna e Mobile?

- God. No, I forgot.

- Good. Don't.

I have a brilliant idea!

What is it?

Oh, I've forgotten it. Um... er...

You remember it. What was that?

- You haven't said it yet.

- I told you this morning.

- No, you didn't.

- I told you at breakfast!

- You didn't.

- And you. I've told you.

You were sitting outside with us.

What is it?

You must know...

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